Journalists Reunite With Families in U.S.

Two U.S. journalists who had been held in North Korea since March returned to California on Wednesday as questions remained about the circumstances of their detention.

ENLARGE

Laura Ling, left, and Euna Lee were reunited with their families Wednesday in California. They were freed by North Korea after months of detention.
Reuters

Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, were greeted at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank by family, friends and former Vice President Al Gore. Details were scant but background on their release, negotiated by former President Bill Clinton in an unusual diplomatic mission to Pyongyang, began to surface.

The pair had spent 140 days in custody in North Korea after illegally entering the country while on assignment for Current TV, the San Francisco-based station co-founded by Mr. Gore.

The group flew back to the U.S. on a Boeing jet owned by Stephen Bing, a Hollywood producer who is a friend of Mr. Clinton's and large donor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The plane stayed on the ground in North Korea for 20 hours before returning to California, stopping in Misawa, Japan, to refuel, said Marc J. Foulkrod, chairman and chief executive of Avjet Corp., which operates the plane for Mr. Bing.

Deft Diplomacy

It was an emotional homecoming for two journalists jailed since March, Anita Vogel reports. Video courtesy of Fox News.

Former President Bill Clinton, barely in North Korea for 24 hours, has managed to orchestrate the release of two jailed U.S. journalists. Jay Solomon says this could pave the way for nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington to resume.

"I felt a big lump in my throat," said Holly Gibson, a freelance journalist who left Current in November and helped coordinate vigils for her two friends. "It was just so wonderful to see their faces and see them with their families," she said.

"They are skinnier than they were before they left, that's for sure," said Daniel Beckmann, who previously worked with Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee at Current's Vanguard investigative unit. He had left the company a year ago but remained in close touch with the staff.

Speaking to people gathered at the airport, Ms. Ling described the pair's time in detention as "the most difficult, heart-wrenching days of our lives." The two were "shocked" when they were taken to see Mr. Clinton, she said. "But we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end."

Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee couldn't be reached to comment.

Friends and co-workers spent Wednesday celebrating the return of the women, and many said they wanted to give them some time alone with their families.

"They were by no means badly treated," said Richard Horgan, a family acquaintance who has been in touch with Ms. Ling's sister, journalist Lisa Ling, throughout the ordeal. "It was like being stuck in a hotel."

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Freed journalists come home

Ms. Ling is a vice president in charge of Current's Vanguard unit. Though Ms. Ling had experience covering stories in dangerous locales, it isn't clear how aware she was about the risks involved in reporting along the North Korean border. The exact circumstances of how they were detained by the North Koreans aren't known.

Before they left, Mr. Beckmann said, friends knew that the two were planning a trip to northern China. "There was no expectation that they were going into North Korea at all," he said.

A Current spokesman said he was not making executives available for interviews on Wednesday.

Ms. Lee called the Los Angeles office of Current on Wednesday morning, telling her colleagues she was glad she was home and thanking them for their support, according to a staff member who heard the call. Ms. Lee said that she had gotten the letters colleagues had written to her while she was in North Korea, and they were her "only communication with the outside world," according to the staff member.

The detention and release of the women have brought much attention to Current, which has struggled to broaden its audience since it was launched four years ago. The company had been preparing for a $100 million initial public offering, but recently canceled those plans.

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